Candidate Obama was forthright and decisive about the real war in Afghanistan and the need to “attack” targets in Pakistan if that proved necessary. Within two weeks of his inauguration, Pakistan has shown President Obama who rules the roost in the “Af-Pak” region, the new Washington slang for the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. Ironically, Pakistan was assisted in…
In the first military stand-off between the two Asian giants since 1986, an Indian submarine and two Chinese warships came close to a confrontation in the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, the South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday, February 5,2009. ( see map below – The Bab Al-Mandab Strait separates Yemen and Djibouti at the western…
Editor’s Note: We would like to thank Mr. Raj Mundhe, a noted Financial Advisor in Boston and another reader for bringing this article to our attention.Alexandra Alter of the Wall Street Journal has written a detailed article about the drive to create a new genre of movies by Hollywood and the Indian Film Industry (Bollywood…
This morning, we saw George Stephanopoulos of ABC conduct a round-table on Afghanistan as “Obama’s Vietnam”. Having written an article yesterday on this theme (“Afghanistan Is Today’s Vietnam Not Iraq” – https://cinemarasik.com/2009/01/31/afghanistan-is-todays-vietnam-not-iraq.aspx ), we listened carefully. Frankly, we were depressed with the quality of analysis and knowledge of this group. It was a rehash of…
Editor’s Note: We are pleased to print the comments (with his permission) sent by a reader in Mumbai. For inquiring minds who would like to know, the reader is a veteran Investment Banker who runs an Asset Management Company. This is our third article on Slumdog Millionaire.*Comments of a Reader from Mumbai – January 26,2009 While…
American Media uses the word Pakistan every day without even pausing to wonder what that name means. The word “Stan” is a Persian derivative of the Sanskrut word “Sthan“ which means “abode of “ or “land of”. So, Afghanistan means Afghan-i-Stan, or the land of the Afghans and Tajikistan means the land of the Tajiks,…
There is virtual consensus in America that the War in Afghanistan is going badly and unless some thing is done, America could end up losing it. Words like Quagmire are being applied to this war by pessimists and optimists are pointing to General Petraeus & his Iraq surge strategy as a way to victory. The invasion…
Last week, we wrote an article* discussing whether the public reprimand administered by the Indian Establishment to David Miliband, British Foreign Secretary, was a signal to the Obama Administration. This week’s events suggest that it was and that the Obama Administration interpreted it as such. This week, the Administration took the sensible and smart decision…
On Tuesday, January 27, 2009, Dylan Ratigan, the anchor of CNBC’s Fast Money and much invited guest on the New York Talk Show Circuit, proclaimed that he was launching a “War On Stupidity”. We support this initiative and hope that Mr. Ratigan actually launches this war.We translate our support into real help by suggesting the first…
We received several comments about our January 17 article titled “Slumdog Millionaire and The Merchant of Venice” https://cinemarasik.com/2009/01/16/slumdog-millionaire-and-the-merchant-of-venice.aspx In that article, we stated our case that “Slumdog Millionaire, like The Merchant of Venice, embodies a deeply hateful and utterly false characterization of an entire religion.” Clearly this was a unique viewpoint and one that readers could…